concerts

An Interview With Kandle – S10E07

Kandle Blog Cover-1

Kandle and Krooks performed at Zaphod Beeblebrox on Wednesday night. I had the opportunity to check out her performance and did an interview with her (which you can listen). For those who don’t know, Kandle Osborne’s father, Neil Osborne is from the well-known Canadian rock band, 54-40.

2014 has been a great year for Osborne as In Flames marked her debut full length album. Prior to the album, she made the move from Vancouver to Montreal as the city has a great music scene. As mentioned from the interview that she worked with Sam Goldberg from Broken Social Scene when making the album. Also mentioned were friends from the likes of Coeur de Pirate and Sam Roberts who lend their voices to the album.

Opening up for Kandle and the Krooks were the Calgary indie rock band, Fast Romantics. The band never performed in the Nation’s Capital but have performed at The Black Sheep Inn in Wakefield, Quebec. The band has gone through changes with the members. They have lost some but gained some . Their music style has a bit of a power ballad when checking them out.

When Kandle and the Krooks got on stage, their music brought on a mix of twang and rock. Osbornes’ soft voice also gave some memorizing and soulful sounds. One of her bandmates was funny that he didn’t know they’re in Ottawa.
Overall, it was a terrific show for both bands and it was rarity to have a concert at Zaphods finish past the 11pm curfew time.
You can check the photo over at Flickr by clicking HERE.

Kandle and the Krooks are on tour in Ontario and Quebec until December 4th.

You can check out audio interview and instant photos below.

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What A Way To End May With Kelp 20 – S09E38

Kelp 20 Impossible on Gen2

May was definitely a fun month with Ottawa Comiccon, a fashion show, a bit of Chinatown Remixed and having to go to Niagara Falls and Toronto. Also, an interesting Creative Mornings Ottawa talk from the past week.

On the last day of May, Kelp Records held their 20th anniversary bash over at St. Albans Church in downtown Ottawa. The Ottawa-based record label has survived and thrived for very long ever since the emergence of digital music in recent times. Kelp helped bring musicians and bands from the likes of Jim Bryson, The Acorn, and various Ottawa artists to the forefront.
The concert from Saturday night consisted of Flecton Big Sky, Andy Swan, Banditas, Chris Page, Evening Hymns, Andrew Vincent, Jim Bryson, The Acorn and Recoilers.

At the show, it was great to see people that I know and you see a few instant photos from below. It was the last time to see the CBC’s Amanda Putz as she’s heading off to the Netherlands. The sad news for the past month was the job cuts and program cancellations to the CBC. It was a privilege to get to know Amanda as I did not know at the time that she was doing work at RTHK and connected to a radio host who I have been listening to. Prior to getting into Canadian indie music and listening to mostly Hong Kong radio, I had been listening to Bandwidth on and off when I was in the car going to places.
It’s definitely an end of an era and Amanda Putz will be missed as she championed Ontario music on the fine radio program on Saturday afternoons.

The photo above was used on the pre-release of Impossible Project’s Gen 2.0 600 Color Film.
You can view the photos from the show over at this link (via Flickr). Apologies on the quality as I’m still working out the kinks of the Fujifilm X-A1 camera.

Happy birthday to Kelp Records!
Lastly, since it’s June, I will be wrapping up for the season on the blog in the upcoming weeks.
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Jessy Lanza at Mercury Lounge – S09E33

Jessy Lanza Jas Nasty Grid Lens

What a way to end April on a soggy note. Things weren’t too bad as I went to Mercury Lounge on Wednesday night for Jessy Lanza. On a previous entry, Lanza’s opener was suppose to be Ricky Eat Acid but due to a change, it was local DJ, Jas Nasty who helped spin groovy tunes on a rainy Wednesday night. Overall, it was a great show and there was a good turnout as the crowd enjoyed and danced to the electro-R&B tunes from Lanza. I was checking on Instagram and someone said that she sounded like the late Aaliyah’s secret love child.
It was also good to see people from the likes of Eventful Capital and a few members of Fevers attend the event.

As usual, you can view some photos below. There’s two black & white instant photos that I shot and it was used by The Impossible Project.

Kudos goes out to Pop Montreal (pennant shown on the photo) and Arboretum Festival for holding an awesome show.
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The NXNE 2013 Wrap-Up with Chris Ho & Crissi Cochrane – S08E45

NXNE 2013 Wrap-Up with Chris Ho & Crissi Cochrane

It was the second year to go to the big smoke, Toronto for NXNE. I definitely had a great time there and unfortunately, I ended up blowing out my left knee as I had to limp around from place to place. Blame it on carrying a shoulder bag full of cameras and an audio recorder. It was painful but was able to manage through the weekend. Here’s my description of events. Apologies if this is a very long blog entry for this week.

Friday (June 14, 2013)
The first band to check out was at Urban Outfitters on Queen St. W and it was the Vancouver Electronic band, Bear Mountain. I found out on Twitter from a fellow CBC R3 fan and a photographer that she and a couple of people were going to Urban Outfitters to see the band live. They were definitely good to check out for anyone that likes Electronic music.

Later on, I went to the CBC Broadcasting Centre to kill time and unexpectedly bumped into one of the members of The Matinee. By then, it was time for the CBC Music Presents The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions finale party at the Glenn Gould Studio. It was great to see the CBC Radio 3 fans/bloggers and some for the first time in person as I interacted on the R3 website, Facebook and Twitter. I finally got to meet Lana Gay as she’s one of the hosts I’ve interacted online but never got to meet in person as she was previously in Vancouver and has recently moved to Toronto. The Darcys performed for the finale party as well and played some of their hits. Bands from The Matinee, Shred Kelly and Hollerado showed up at the party. There was a funny moment when CBC Radio 3 host, Grant Lawrence did a crowd surf entrance from outside the CBC and inside Glen Gould Studio.

After the party, I tagged along with several people to go see k-os but found out we went to wrong location. Some of the guys were goofing off at Harbourfront and that’s when my knee starting buckling up. Some of us splited up and went with two people (Eric and Brenda) to check out The National. Unfortunately, it was very packed getting to Yonge-Dundas Square. Then I tagged along with Brenda to go see… Sloan! For the life of me, I felt like a newbie to see Sloan as I never got to see them live. They played at The Great Hall and crowds were packed to see them.
Afterwards, I went down to Blk Box to see Still Life Still and Gold & Youth. I didn’t stay for all of Gold & Youth as my knee was getting pretty sore.

Photos
Shows from Friday can seen over at this link via Flickr.
The CBC Music Present The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions finale party photos can be seen over at this link.
Photos on my Facebook Page can be seen at this link.

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Playing Canadian Bands & Musicians with Asian Backgrounds – S07E37

It’s now May and a brand new month but first thing to mention, I had a great time on Monday night at the Ottawa International Writers Festival for the All In A Day Songwriters Circle: The Stage Name Summit. From the photo shown above, there was Masia One with DJ 2 Creamz and CBC’s Alan Neal. Other performers for the songwriters circle who attended were Snailhouse, Oh Susanna, Socalled and Joe Keithley (from the punk-rock band, DOA). Out of the five performers, the ones I’m familiar with were Masia and Snailhouse since I usually see them from time to time and been a great supporter to their works.
Overall, it was nice to watch the performers be witty among one another and giving their best performances to the audience on the final night of Writers Festival. The photos will be posted below.

The SOCAN Edition
Wednesday’s radio show was SOCAN week and to be unique, I decided to play Canadian bands and musicians with Asian backgrounds as May is Asian Heritage Month. It was a bit difficult finding a Canadian musician with Asian descent but I was able to pull through the live show. On the first part of the show, the new song by Metric got played and as usual, the Wild 10 Countdown with a new number one song to begin May.
The playlist is over at this link.

Audio/Radio Show
The May 2nd Radio Show – Press play to listen.

Photos from the All In A Day Songwriters Circle
  
 

It Was a Fabulous and Fun Friday – S07E17

I had a great time going to some events on December 16, 2011. To begin, I found out through Twitter that Arcade Fire released a music video to a favourite song that everyone loves from The Suburbs, it was Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains). I couldn’t stop watching and listening to the song.
The next exciting part was attending CBC All In A Day for Share Central at Ben Franklin Place. Performing there were Kool Krys and Natalia & Montuno. It was nice to see Kool Krys as I gave her the wonderful Kanpe Tea for DAVIDsTEA. In return, she gave me her second album, Listen To Your Art. Overall, I had a good time there and had a Beavertail.
Last but not least, I headed over to Raw Sugar Cafe to see Joey Wright and Rolf Klausener (of The Acorn) for a show. It was a good show filled with funny humour and not so keen language.
You can view the photos from below.
Oh yeah, since I didn’t post an entry for Wednesday, the radio show from Wednesday will be posted. I played part 1 of my Top 50 of 2011. The playlist is over at this link via CKCU-FM.

Audio/Radio Show
The December 14th Radio Show – Press play to listen.

Photos
CBC All In A Day – Share Central
    
Raw Sugar Cafe – Joey Wright and Rolf Klausener
 

The Dan Mangan and Braids Interviews – S07E09

It was quite a weekend as Lauren and myself got to interview Dan Mangan on Friday. It was great to see Mangan again and it was thrilling for my co-host to interview him. Mangan is very popular in the Canadian music realm and the release of Oh Fortune, his third album, has cemented it. Overall, it was a nice time to chat with Mangan. I wasn’t alone to interviewing Mangan, the crew from Apartment613 were there to interview him with video equipment in tow. I’m waiting to see their article on him. Lastly, it’s cool to take a Polaroid photo with Mangan as it’s posted above.
The next day, I had the opportunity to interview Braids but without my co-host. It was a fun interview as well. On Sunday, there was another interview I did, which will air in the future, that was Data Romance. They’re an electronic duo from Vancouver, British Columbia. It was quite jam packed for the weekend and there was The Sheepdogs in-store performance on Saturday. My co-host did go to the concert at Scotiabank Place as the Saskatoon band opened up for The Kings of Leon.
Aside from the excitement, Wednesday morning was not as exciting as the computers at CKCU-FM weren’t functioning. The Wednesday morning host (Special Blend) was in a bad mood when the equipments malfunctioned.
For the time being, the live airing of the radio show was not combined with the podcast version. What you will be hearing will be a full podcast edition of WildWorks. The live airing did not have Lauren joining me due to the fact that she couldn’t make it for the morning for the prerecording of the podcast.
You can listen to audio and interviews at the bottom. The Dan Mangan interview is not posted onto Soundcloud due to copyright issues.

This week’s playlist is posted at this link over at the CKCU-FM website.
The Wild 10 Countdown Summary for October 19th is at this link.

Audio/Interviews
The October 19th Podcast Show joined with Lauren B. – Press play to listen. Check Playlist.

The Dan Mangan Interview – Press play to listen or the interview without the songs being used.

The Braids Interview